Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/407

Rh the instruction of that philosopher, became negligent, and gave himself up to idleness; a change which drew from Demosthenes, who is said to have been his fellow-disciple, a letter of remonstrance. This letter is noticed in a fragment of the commentary on the Gorgias of Plato by Olympiodorus, preserved in a MS. collection of Praeannotamenta Miscellanea in Platonem, in the imperial library at Vienna. (Lambecius, Comment. de Biblioth. Caesarea, lib. vii. No. 77, vol. vii. p. 271, ed. Kollar; Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. iii. p. 176.)

 HERA′CLEON, a grammarian, a native of Egypt, mentioned by Suidas (s. v.) and quoted by Stephanus of Byzantium, Harpocration (s. v. ), Eustathius (pp. 1910, 106. c. 524. b.), and in the Scholia Marciana on Homer. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. pp. 388, 513, vol. vi. p. 368.)

 HERACLEO′NAS, the second son of the emperor Heraclius, reigned together with his brother, Constantine III., after the death of their father in March (February), A. D. 641, and he succeeded his brother in the month of June (May) following. Constantine III. had two sons, but their legitimate rights were disregarded by his ambitious stepmother Martina, who placed her younger son, Heracleonas, on the throne, and reigned in his name till the following month of September, when her misgovernment was put an end to by a revolt of the people, headed by Valentinus, the commander of the troops in Asia. Martina was punished with the loss of her tongue, and Heracleonas was deprived of his nose. They were both confined in a convent, and finished their days in obscurity. Heracleonas was succeeded by Constans II., the son of his brother, Constantine III. [; ]

 HERACLES, and in Latin HERCULES, the most celebrated of all the heroes of antiquity. The traditions about him are not only the richest in substance, but also the most widely spread; for we find them not only in all the countries round the Mediterranean, but his wondrous deeds were known in the most distant countries of the ancient world. The difficulty of presenting a complete view of these traditions was felt even by the ancients (Diod. iv. 8); and in order to give a general survey, we must divide the subject, mentioning first the Greek legends and their gradual development, next the Roman legends, and lastly those of the East (Egypt, Phoenicia).

The traditions about Heracles appear in their national purity down to the time of Herodotus; for although there may be some foreign ingredients, yet the whole character of the hero, his armour, his exploits, and the scenes of his action, are all essentially Greek. But the poets of the time of Herodotus and of the subsequent periods introduced considerable alterations, which were probably derived from the east or Egypt, for every nation of antiquity as well as of modern times had or has some traditions of heroes of superhuman strength and power. Now while in the earliest Greek legends Heracles is a purely human hero, as the conqueror of men and cities, he afterwards appears as the subduer of monstrous animals, and is connected in a variety of ways with astronomical phaenomena. According to Homer (Il. xviii. 118), Heracles was the son of Zeus by Alcmene of Thebes in Boeotia, and the favourite of his father. (Il. xiv. 250, 323, xix. 98, Od. xi. 266, 620, xxi. 25, 36.) His stepfather was Amphitryon. (Il. v. 392, Od. xi. 269; Hes. Scut. Herc. 65.) Amphitryon was the son of Alcaeus, the son of Perseus, and Alcmene was a grand-daughter of Perseus. Hence Heracles belonged to the family of Perseus. The story of his birth runs thus. Amphitryon, after having slain Electryon, was expelled from Argos, and went with his wife Alcmene to Thebes, where he was received and purified by his uncle Creon. Alcmene was yet a maiden, in accordance with a vow which Amphitryon had been obliged to make to Electryon, and Alcmene continued to refuse him the rights of a husband, until he should have avenged the death of her brothers on the Taphians. While Amphitryon was absent from Thebes, Zeus one night, to which he gave the duration of three other nights, visited Alcmene, and assuming the appearance of Amphitryon, and relating to her how her brothers had been avenged, he begot by her the hero Heracles, the great bulwark of gods and men. (Respecting the various modifications of this story see Apollod. ii. 4. § 7, &c.; Hygin. Fab. 29; Hes. Scut. 35, &c.; Pind. Isth. vii. 5, &c., Nem. x. 19, &c.; Schol. ad Hom. Od. xi. 266.) The day on which Heracles was to be born, Zeus boasted of his becoming the father of a man who was to rule over the heroic race of Perseus. Hera prevailed upon him to confirm by an oath that the descendant of Perseus born that day should be the ruler. When this was done she hastened to Argos, and there caused the wife of Sthenelus to give birth to Eurystheus, whereas, by keeping away the Eileithyiae, she delayed the confinement of Alcmene, and thus robbed Heracles of the empire which Zeus had intended for him. Zeus was enraged at the imposition practised upon him, but could not violate his oath. Alcmene brought into the world two boys, Heracles, the son of Zeus, and Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon, who was one night younger than Heracles. (Hom. Il. xix. 95, &c.; Hes. Scut. 1—56, 80, &c.; Apollod. ii. 4. § 5, &c.) Zeus, in his desire not to leave Heracles the victim of Hera's jealousy, made her promise, that if Heracles executed twelve great works in the service of Eurystheus, he should become immortal. (Diod. iv. 9.) Respecting the place of his birth traditions did not agree; for although the majority of poets and mythographers relate that he was born at Thebes, Diodorus (iv. 10) says that Amphitryon was not expelled from Tiryns till after the birth of Heracles, and Euripides (Herc. Fur. 18) describes Argos as the native country of the hero.

Nearly all the stories about the childhood and youth of Heracles, down to the time when he entered the service of Eurystheus, seem to be inventions of a later age: at least in the Homeric poems and in Hesiod we only find the general remarks that he grew strong in body and mind, that in the confidence in his own power he defied even the immortal gods, and wounded Hera and Ares, and that under the protection of Zeus and Athena he escaped the dangers which Hera prepared for him. But according to Pindar (Nem. i. 49, &c.), and other subsequent writers, Heracles was only a few months old when Hera sent two serpents into the apartment where Heracles and his brother Iphicles were sleeping, but the former killed the serpents with his own hands. (Comp. Theocrit. xxiv. 1, &c.; Apollod. ii. 4. § 8.) Heracles was brought 